- I can't help myself. The ways in which the lives of the
animals here on The Mountain parallel those of the people I know continue
to fascinate me.
-
- Take Huck the Spotless Appaloosa and his new gal, Rosie
the Arabian. Rosie had been living with us for only about a month when
Elaine the Not So Wild Mustang died. For that month, Rosie was the "New
Girl," fully accepted by neither Huck nor Elaine.
-
- But after Elaine's death, everything changed. Huck and
Rosie huddled together, and there was no doubt in my mind that they were
comforting each other.
-
- It wasn't a matter of the funereal platitudes we humans
dispense. There was no, "She was a fine woman," or "It was
all for the best." And not even one, "Remember the way she used
to love to rub against the fence?"
-
- Instead, they handled their grief physically. Huck's
was stronger than Rosie's. After all, he and Elaine had been together for
seven years, emerging in tandem from the mist at the far end of the corral
every morning like adventurers returning from a night in an enchanted realm
and vanishing into the darkness every evening to search for the magic again.
-
- I was worried that without Elaine Huck would be lost,
that he was in for a period of long and painful mourning. But within moments
of Elaine's burial, Rosie showed the intelligence, sensitivity and strength
of character lovers of Arabian horses have always talked about.
-
- She turned to Huck and did something Elaine never had.
Nuzzled the side of his neck. Huck raised his head questioningly, but Rosie
didn't back away. Instead, she moved in closer and began grooming Huck's
back with her teeth. She worked her way from his withers to his flanks,
and before long his face was covered by a big, horsey smile.
-
- Huck looked over to where I stood by the corral gate.
"Well, what do y'know?" he said. "She's not so bad. She's
not bad at all."
-
- And he closed his eyes and let out a long, soulful sigh.
-
- In the weeks since then, Rosie's never let a day go by
without gently working her teeth along Huck's spine or the back of his
neck. And now that he's discovered this pleasure, Huck has started returning
it as well. He's not that big on showing affection in public (now there's
a real man), but every now and then I'll see the two of them amid the trees
with Huck following Rosie's directions. "Over there," she'll
be saying. "A little farther up yes, that's the spot. You're such
a good man."
-
- Being a domesticated breed and not a captured wild thing,
Rosie's much calmer than Elaine was, and that calm has spread to Huck.
Elaine would bolt in terror at loud engine sounds, which meant that Huck
thought he had to protect her by rearing and racing around crazily whenever
I started up the lawn tractor. Rosie, however, just stands peacefully and
watches as I mow - and so does Huck.
-
- "Aren't you going to run around like a fool now?"
I asked him the first time this happened.
-
- "And look like a jerk in front of my woman?"
said Huck. "Get serious, Larry. Why would I do that?"
-
- Feeding time has become a pleasure now that Huck and
Rosie are a couple. All I've got to do is put the hay down in one big pile,
and they dig into it together. No biting. No squealing. Just gob-smacking
pleasure.
-
- The one bone of contention between them is human attention.
Whenever Gwen the Beautiful or I go outside, both Huck and Rosie call to
us and come to the fence for petting, nose rubbing and finger nibbling.
Huck tries to keep Rosie back, behind him, as he did Elaine, but she'll
have none of it.
-
- Right from the start, Rosie made her position clear.
"I'm a member of this family," she said firmly, and pushed her
petite self forward, making sure she was right alongside the much bigger
guy.
-
- "You going to stand for that?" I said to Huck.
-
- He snorted. "I made my point."
-
- Like Huck, I've come to love Rosie. He loves her because
she makes him so happy. I love her for that, but also for something else.
-
- I love her for being so much like the woman who's made
me so happy for so many wonderful years.
-
- I love her for being Huck's Gwen.
-
- Copyright C 2007 by Larry Brody. All rights reserved.
-
-
- Author Larry Brody's weekly column, LIVE! FROM PARADISE!
appears on his website, www.larrybrody.com. He has written thousands of
hours of network television, and is the author of "Television Writing
from the Inside Out" and "Turning Points in Television."
Brody is Creative Director of The Cloud Creek Institute for the Arts, the
world's first in-residence media colony. More about his activities can
be seen on www.tvwriter.com and www.cloudcreek.org. He welcomes your comments
and feedback at <mailto:LarryBrody@cloudcreek.org>LarryBrody@cloudcreek.org.
Brody, his wife and their dogs, cats, horses and chickens live in Marion
County, Arkansas. The other residents of the mythical town of Paradise
reside in his imagination.
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